Business

LOS ANGELES >> The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County today recorded its largest daily decrease since Oct. 27, 2012, dropping 3.8 cents to $4.057. The average price has dropped 16 consecutive days, decreasing 24.

It’s always been in their blood, but not until they got in a lab did a group of high schoolers truly see science as a career possibility. Twenty Garfield High School students were invited to take part in a two-week summer science academy at

LOS ANGELES - The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County today recorded its largest daily decrease since Nov. 3, 2012, dropping 2.9 cents to $4.095. The average price has dropped 15 consecutive days, decreasing 20.

It was mid-morning one day in May and somewhere deep inside a 25-story tower in Sacramento, an auction, cloaked in secrecy, was about to begin. There was no gavel pounding. No shouting. No frenzy of traders running around.

EL DORADO, Arkansas >> On the east side of this small town, tucked away not far from the Louisiana border, sit two massive incinerators with a surprising link to a landmark environmental law in California.

In a small hearing room decorated with paintings of birds and flowers, Sen. Fran Pavley – the great-granddaughter of a three-time presidential candidate – sat down to present the bill that will likely cement her legacy as the California Legislature’s most accomplished environmentalist.

SEATTLE — Menu prices are up 21 percent and you don’t have to tip at Ivar’s Salmon House on Seattle’s Lake Union after the restaurant decided to institute the city’s $15-an-hour minimum wage two years ahead of schedule.

A national environmental organization went to court this week demanding an immediate halt to hydraulic fracturing and other intensive well-stimulation methods until California petroleum industry regulators can consider new scientific findings of troubling health and environmental threats.

POMONA >> Violins, oboes and saxophones where among musical instruments delivered Thursday afternoon to Diamond Ranch High School. The instruments are part of a donation totaling $75,000 made to Pomona Unified and to Bonita Unified school district through a partnership between Fairplex, concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and HARD Events.

WHITTIER >> The planned repair of a water leak on Pickering Avenue, just north of Hadley Street, on Wednesday could negatively impact traffic at the site, a city official said Tuesday. Public Works Director David Pelser said it’s uncertain how large the leak at the 6300 block of Pickering Avenue is and as a result doesn’t know whether the street might have to be closed.

DETROIT — In the age of Apple’s CarPlay, a lot of cars on the road still have tape decks. The average vehicle in the U.S. is now a record 11.5 years old, according to consulting firm IHS Automotive, a sign of the increased reliability of today’s vehicles and the lingering impact of the sharp drop in new car sales during the recession.

A new national study concludes that the rapidly growing South Bay beer industry — considered one of the county’s craft brewing hot spots — contributed thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in wages to the economy last year.

SAN FRANCISCO — Like a lot of teenagers, Aanya Nigam reflexively shares her whereabouts, activities and thoughts on Twitter, Instagram and other social networks without a qualm. But Aanya’s care-free attitude dissolved into paranoia a few months ago shortly after her mother bought Amazon’s Echo, a digital assistant that can be set up in a home or office to listen for various requests, such as for a song, a sports score, the weather, or even a book to be read aloud.

WASHINGTON — The House and Senate are moving toward passage of a three-month patch to keep federal highway and transit aid flowing to states while lawmakers seek the right mix of policy and revenue to achieve a long-term transportation deal.

Long Beach Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal believes port truckers are working in conditions of “modern-day indentured servitude.” Lowenthal made her statement Tuesday evening near the conclusion of a Tidelands and Harbor Committee study session focused on port truckers.

LOS ANGELES - The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped today for the 12th consecutive day, decreasing 1.2 cents to $4.15. The average price has dropped 15.

At age 29 and in a committed relationship with his girlfriend, Daniel Garcia, a Long Beach barista, thinks occasionally about what it would be like to own a home. But then he’d rather pay off some personal debt and travel a little more.

The Los Angeles County supervisors reached a compromise Tuesday with vintners and grape growers who spoke out against the extension of a temporary ban on new and expanded vineyards in the north area of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Drones are getting a lot of attention in Southern California these days, but for all the wrong reasons. Last week firefighters were battling the North Fire along the 15 Freeway when their efforts were hampered by five drones.

COMMERCE >> Two months after appointing a new attorney, the Central Basin Municipal Water District Board of Directors voted 4-1 Monday to award a $10,000 contract to controversial attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman who had represented the district for the last year.

A restaurateur who purchased a former convent in Los Feliz that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles prefers to sell to Katy Perry took advantage of the aging nuns who resided at the property, attorneys for the archdiocese allege in new court papers.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped Monday for the 11th consecutive day, decreasing a half-cent to $4.162. The average price has dropped 14 cents over the past 11 days, including 1.

Walmart plans to open a 1.2 million square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Chino in September, according to the San Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board. The planned center in Chino is one of several fulfillment centers the retailer reportedly plans to open throughout the country this year, with one opening up in Bethlehem, Pa.

The California Lottery posted more than $5.5 billion in total sales during the fiscal year ending June 30, the highest sales total in the state’s lottery history. The Sacrament Bee reports preliminary figures show that’s about 10 percent more than the previous year’s then-record of $5.

Brouwerij West, the full-production craft brewery taking shape in a World War II-era warehouse at the Port of Los Angeles, is gearing up to produce its first batches of beer by the end of the summer and open its doors to the public in the fall.

I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I have lived and traveled throughout the United States. I have visited numerous foreign countries. I have served in the military. I have practiced the craft of journalism for nearly 50 years, which requires a finely honed dose of skepticism.

LOS ANGELES >> The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped today for the ninth consecutive day, decreasing 1.9 cents to $4.178. The average price has dropped 12.

A building boom is underway in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, bringing residents and tourists to this dense neighborhood seen by some as a model for Southern California urban living. But the cranes and construction are also fueling debate over affordable housing and Los Angeles City Hall’s role in encouraging low-cost development.

NEW YORK >> Even as TV watchers increasingly go online, AT&T has become the country’s biggest traditional TV provider with its $48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV. It got its regulatory approval Friday from the Federal Communications Commission after more than a year.

EL MONTE >> Some of the city’s poorest residents were given some welcome relief this week when the City Council passed a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. The ordinance, approved unanimously, prevents mobile home park owners across El Monte from raising rents beyond a cost of living increase every year unless they get city approval to do so, with some exceptions.

Potholes, cracks and ruts in rapidly deteriorating roadways are costing Southern California car owners an extra $1,031 a year to drive on the second worst maintained roads in the nation, according to a report released Thursday by a Washington, D.

MONTEBELLO >> “Their smiles were so big,” said florist Cheryll Goto on Thursday, recalling reaction the previous day of residents at the Rio Hondo Subacute & Nursing Center, when she and several volunteers presented them with colorful bouquets.

Americans are known for racking up lots of debt and many turn to debt settlement to address the problem. We asked Carlos Salazar Jr., owner of Salazar Services in San Bernardino, to weigh in on the issue.

PASADENA >> The iD Tech company is working with universities such as Caltech to ensure today’s youth are prepared to enter the fastest and oftentimes most lucrative career fields — those involving science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County dropped 1.7 cents Thursday to $4.245, the sixth consecutive decrease following a seven-day stretch of increases totaling 75.

SAN FRANCISCO >> The movement to raise the minimum wage across the U.S. gained ground Wednesday with the huge University of California system announcing plans to increase base pay for its employees and contract workers to $15 an hour over the next two years.

The doctors told Elizabeth Criss that a child with her daughter’s disorder would only live until she was 8. She would suffer from seizures, the doctors said. She would likely be unable to communicate and would have problems with her vision.

A city-owned parking lot in Koreatown is at the center of an unusual deal proposed between Los Angeles City Hall and a local nonprofit. The Korean American Museum Inc. plans to rent a lot on Vermont Avenue from the city for $1 a year and build a two-story museum on the site.

Following the lead of the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a trio of motions that will incrementally raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour by 2020.